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Seal marijuana packaging to protect kids

Posted:
04/11/2013 07:28:27 AM MDT

Marijuana users who have children should keep the drug out of reach of their children, especially if the parents use "edibles." Those include brownies, cookies, cupcakes, truffles, toffee, carbonated beverages and hard candy.

Those "treats" are leading to children ingesting marijuana, and that is leading to trips to the emergency room. A recent Denver Post report noted that from early 2005 to late 2009, Children's Hospital Colorado had zero emergency-room visits by children who had ingested marijuana. In the following two years, it had 14. None of the children died.

Denver Health's Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center reported that calls to the center about potential marijuana exposure at all ages have doubled since 2009.

So, doctors at Children's are championing a movement to require that marijuana be placed in safety packaging, so that young children can not easily unwrap and ingest the drug.

Some in the marijuana industry, not surprisingly, oppose the idea of individual packaging because of the cost involved. However, they agree that tamper-proof bulk packaging is doable. One shop in Northglenn, according to the article, keeps track of customers who have children and sells lock boxes in which to store the marijuana.

That's helpful, but there remains this concern. If the marijuana user -- that is the parent in this case -- leaves open a package or even a lock box of candies, his child still can reach in and grab a handful.

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Parents who currently leave marijuana-laced treats sitting within reach of their children likely will not be careful to reseal a package every time and put it out of reach.

One marijuana shop noted that you "can't write laws around dumb." True enough, but if the industry continues to market its drug like candy (just Google the words "marijuana edibles"), it must bear the burden of helping keep the drug out of the hands of children.

As marijuana production explodes in Colorado -- and it will without regulation -- the availability of the drug to young children will grow as well. To fail to address this problem would be unconscionable.

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